Issue not Smart Meters, but where to draw the line
Dear Editor:
Re: “Smart meter arguments inaccurate” Aug. 8
If this debate was over one smart meter or one cell phone it would be a waste of good ink. It distracts us from the real issue, which is how harmful to human health is non-ionizing radiation?
A competent body of knowledge is slowly accumulating, beginning with a 1980 Annals of Science report from University of Michigan citing research as far back as 1924 revealing links to an alarming variety of physical and psychological problems. That report examines the Tri-Service program from the late 1950s linking radiation in the 300 to 300,00 MHZ range to infertility and cataracts.
The U.S. National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB 2001), the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC 2006) and a new Lancet Working Group Report all cite inconclusive links but go on record declaring non-ionizing radiation to be “potentially carcinogenic.”
Our provincial Ministry of Health has now bowed to the accumulation of data, saying,
“The possible association between mobile phone use and cancer risk, particularly among long-term heavy users of cell phones, does warrant further study. Research is continuing and will be monitored. www.health.gov.bc.ca/pho/issues.html.
Keep in mind that all this high-powered research is being done to establish a safe limit for the radiation of a single transmitting device. The reality the research selectively ignores is that we’re talking about thousands of transmitters now and thousands more as the Smart Era overtakes us.
Other utilities are moving quickly into the Smart game; water and gas, each adding another watt or two. Manufacturers have begun production of Smart appliances many of which offer the option of control by one’s computer or cell phone. Others, some now in operation, allow utilities the option of remote control for the purpose of managing peak-load conditions. All are ultimately intended to respond to RF transmissions and to broadcast details of their use to owners, to utilities and, in some cases, back to their makers. Writers and researchers project the eventual likelihood of a more than a dozen such appliances in each home, each a low-wattage broadcasting station finally totaling a vast background of RF covering the 917 MHz to 3.65 GHz range of the spectrum.
As if that weren’t enough, and of course it’s not because the Smart Age is just beginning — coming soon to a powerline near you is Broadband-Over-Power-Lines with its added load.
The real issue is not just Smart Meters nor just cell phones but rather, where to draw the line on this exponentially expanding load of non-ionizing radiation and who gets to draw it.
Merlin Moss
Courtenay, B.C.
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